Jeffrey D. Sadow is an associate professor of political science at Louisiana State University Shreveport. If you're an elected official, political operative or anyone else upset at his views, don't go bothering LSUS or LSU System officials about that because these are his own views solely.
This publishes five days weekly with the exception of 7 holidays. Also check out his Louisiana Legislature Log especially during legislative sessions (in "Louisiana Politics Blog Roll" below).

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5.4.13

We have the answer, which leads us to the next question: will Bossier
City voters enact any punishment at all to its politicians for their profligacy
and wasted opportunities?

As noted previously in this space, voters have good reason, given the
history of citizenry abuse of its resources with a number of ill-conceived,
wasteful projects and decisions, that culminated in a budget crisis right after
the 2009 elections and also led the city to bungle an economic development
decision announced at the end of last year that may cost it tens of millions of
dollars. So public outcry could have been such that many candidates would have surfaced to challenge the coup-counting, chest-puffing good old boys in
power.

One, District 4 councilman David Jones, did call it quits, and sliding
right into his spot is local real estate agent Jeff Free. While choice for
voters would have been better, it’s hard not consider any outcome as an
upgrade, and with Jones’ departure overall on the council we can expect fewer
outbreaks of athlete’s mouth.

Yesterday, Rep. Bill Cassidy
formally announced his intentions to contest the seat, perhaps coordinated with
Rep. John Fleming who, after
letting the Cassidy announcement get covered for a day, then offered his
declination. Fleming would have been a competitive candidate but faced a significant
disadvantage compared to Cassidy: many fewer dollars currently in the bank with
the need to raise a ton of them.

While Fleming is the wealthiest member of the state’s congressional
delegation – even including Landrieu – past elections show she will move
mountains to spend to stay in office. For the two-year election cycle ending in
her reelection 2008, she outspent her main opponent $10.144 million to $4.795
million and in the cycle ending in 2002 she outspent her main opponent $7.540
million to $3.721 million. Having the ability to bludgeon the opposition, which
reflects both her fundraising prowess and the relative weakness of the other
candidates, has been key to her narrow wins.

The survey
by Baton Rouge businessman Lane Grigsby did not have heartening news for Sen. Mary Landrieu. She
received an overall favorable approval rate of 56 percent, but when considering
reelection, more crucial to understanding those chances comes from evaluating her
against a field and not in isolation. Even with a sample tilted a bit towards
Democrat candidates, against any generic candidate more than a third of the sample
said straight out it would not vote for her, barely fewer than said they would
definitely vote for her reelection in 2014 (and a small
improvement over her worse numbers two years ago).

Five years ago, against a weak
liberal-Democrat-turned-populist-conservative-Republican state Treasurer John
Kennedy, she managed to pull out a five-point win with polls in the months
prior to the election averaging
her vote to reelect rate around 45 percent in a favorable electoral
climate. Neither condition exists at this time.

Prior to each legislative session, over the past several years it has
become a rite of Baton Rouge businessman Lane Grigsby to commission a survey
concerning prominent politicians and issues. However, it must be noted that the
sampling of 600 registered voters, not actual intended voters for a future
election, did a substandard job in a couple of ways, making some of its
conclusions problematic in presenting a valid reading of them.

It did have a tilt in favor of interests that might be expected to
support Democrats, given results gathered from the kinds of candidates they
typically vote for compared to 2012 election results. More disturbingly, it oversampled
tremendously in one way in that one in nine reported having a household member
working as a public school teacher when only about 50,000
are employed as public school teachers statewide out of about 2.9
million registered voters or a an actual ratio (assuming the proportion of
registered voters of adults at 82 percent is reflected in households, or
1.37 million) of 3.6 percent, meaning the sample actually contained three times
the proportion of public school teachers in a household than actually exists in
the population.

This saga began a dozen years ago during the first
administration of former Mayor Keith Hightower as a response to Environmental
Protection Agency concerns over the city’s waste treatment. One alternative was
to buy technology to deal with it at a cost of $26 million. But another was to make
a deal with Bioset, as the firm had a process by which sludge could be turned
into sod.

Hightower did the latter – but on distinctly
unfavorable terms for the city. In a total contract of $32 million over 20
years, along with the city backing a $10 million loan, low
interest and tax exempt, of then-available small-issue Industrial Development
Revenue Bonds from the state’s Louisiana Community Development Authority to build
facilities, for an estimated value of $700,000 the city would get sod from
Bioset for its use on various city properties. Over time, rumors surfaced that this
had been a sweetheart deal for associates of Hightower and/or a result of
campaign contributions; certainly it made little economic sense as, in this particular
instance, the cost of the city doing this itself actually would have been lower
and would have left it with a permanent facility to do it with.

31.3.13

Perhaps Gov. Bobby
Jindal has bitten off more than he could chew. Or maybe people have assumed
the wrong agenda for him all along.

With criticism
from a number of corners, some of it with merit, much of it driven by political
calculation, over his tax swap plan that essentially replaces income taxes with
(increasingly) higher and broader sales taxation that simplifies the system which together
produce greater economic growth, chances are fading that it will make its way
into law as he intends it. They are reduced further by distracting sideshows
left over from previous bold initiatives of the past year – attempts to have declared
the ways in which education reform were enacted unconstitutional and the restructuring
of health care delivery with the backdrop of ruinous federal policy, and in
this area an investigation apparently into one of the largest contracts let by
the state. So much so far so fast may mean some of it gets left behind for the
lack of enough political resources to get it into law.

The prevailing assumption, often explicated in cynical and
condescending tones, is that Jindal’s public policy is driven primarily by a
desire to achieve higher office. Those with little understanding of the
philosophy behind his general policy prescriptions – privatizing state
functions where it’s best to do so, improving delivery where they should remain
operated by the state, or using both approaches by encouraging private provision
to compete with and improve public sector delivery, and all against a backdrop of
fiscal policy designed to get government out of the way to unleash the fruits
of individual autonomy – assign the specific policies from this as props solely
created to further political ambitions. This entirely misunderstands.

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